1. Indy wants to get on the plane, THEREFORE he climbs up to incapacitate the pilot.
BUT

2. The mechanic sees him, and THEREFORE they start to fight.
BUT

3. This draws the attention of the Big Guy who loves to box, THEREFORE he approaches and challenges Indy
BUT

4. This also draws the attention of the pilot who has a gun, THEREFORE
Indy is fighting and being shot at
BUT

5. Marion pulls out the wheel-blocks of the plane to use as a weapon, THEREFORE eliminating the threat from the pilot
BUT

6. When she does this, the pilot slumps onto the controls, BUT the plane engines start and the plane begins to spin.
THEREFORE

7. Marion hops into the cockpit to try and fix this problem, BUT the hatch closes and sticks shut
BUT

8. Marion can’t get the man off in the small space, THEREFORE the plane grazes the fuel tanks, opening them
BUT

9. Here come Nazis, THEREFORE Marion uses the gun
BUT

10. This causes an explosion and a fire, THEREFORE killing the enemies
BUT

9. This also alerts the entire camp, and puts the plane in grave danger of explosion (which is an awesome way to raise this scene’s tension! Are you excited? Isn’t this fun?)

(oh my god, she whispers. Marion, he realizes.)

BUT the Big Guy is having such fun beating the crap out of Indy, he doesn’t care about the coming fire (hurry, Indy, hurry)
BUT

10. The Big Guy is undeterred and overconfident and also about to win, THEREFORE he misjudges the spinning rotors and dies, (gross)
BUT

11. Marion is trapped and the fire is coming! (Seriously, watch the progress of the flames in the background of the shot. It gives me goosebumps even though I know they make it out in time. Writing this as narrative and conveying that urgency would be a great challenge to try.) THEREFORE Indy shoots the lock, freeing Marion, and they both run to safety.

BOOM!

Now, you have to know when to start having more THEREFOREs and less BUTs so that you get resolution. You can also double or triple up on some BUTs to ramp up tension and stakes.

Next time, I want to talk about writing Marion as a character. Thanks for reading! If you like this, there’s a bunch more for only $1/month on my Patreon!